No difference in rates of absenteeism between workers in air-conditioned offices and naturally ventilated ones: a data base study.

Air conditioning systems are often held to have effects upon the workforce. This research tried to assess whether continuous exposure to air-conditioning during working hours had any observable effect on health or not. A comparison was made of absence due to sickness recorded by the employers' doctors over two years in two groups of workers employed in similar jobs in the French National Electric and Gas Company in Western France. One group spent most of their time in air conditioned offices but the other worked in a natural atmosphere. There was no difference between either group in terms of the incidence, duration or frequency of medically-related absences. The study group was then limited to absences due to respiratory diseases. This produced the same result. The conclusion to be drawn was that air-conditioning has no major effects on healthiness.